Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 LA JOLLA, California – The #5 Pepperdine men's water polo team's season got off to a mixed start, as the Waves defeated #14 California Baptist, 12-10, on Saturday morning before falling to tournament host and ninth-ranked UC San Diego, 17-12, in the afternoon at the Triton Invitational.
The Waves (1-1) led for nearly the entirety of the game against the Lancers, but trailed the Tritons for almost all of the second contest.
BIG WAVES
- Senior utility Sean Ferrari (Redwood City, Calif./St. Francis HS) had a team-high four goals on the day with two in each contest.
- Sophomore attacker Anthony D'Ambra (Rolling Hills, Calif./Palos Verdes HS), junior utility Kaden Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS) and senior attacker Balazs Kosa (Budapest, Hungary) all had hat tricks against UC San Diego.
- Senior goalie John Claude Marco (Atherton, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep) had eight saves against CBU and three against UCSD.
GAME #1 RECAP
The Waves only trailed once in the game at 3-2 in the second quarter but goals by Ferrari, freshman center
Matty Walsh (Laguna Beach, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic HS) and junior utility
Zach Arthur (Redlands, Calif./Redlands East Valley HS) put Pepperdine in front to stay at 5-3. A third-quarter counterattack goal by senior center
Nicholas Fichmann (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Golden West College) gave the Waves their first three-goal lead at 7-4. It was 9-6 after three quarters, but CBU cut the deficit to one at 10-9 with 2 1/2 minutes to go. Ferrari and Fichmann both scored again to put the game out of reach.
CBU 2-2-2-4--10
PEPP 2-3-4-3--12
Pepperdine goals: Sean Ferrari 2,
Nicholas Fichmann 2,
Jake Howerton 2,
Austin Smit 2,
Zach Arthur 1,
Clay Kaneko 1,
Kyle Thomas 1,
Matty Walsh 1.
GAME #2 RECAP
The Waves led just once, at 2-1, after a pair of D'Ambra goals. It was last tied at 5-5 in the second quarter after Kosa scored twice. The Tritons went up by three at 8-5 and four at 10-6 early in the third quarter. Three straight Pepperdine tallies got the Waves back within one at 10-9. It was still a one-goal game early in the fourth quarter when D'Ambra scored to make it 12-11. But, the Tritons finished the game out by scoring five of the final six goals.
UCSD 3-6-3-5--17
PEPP 3-3-4-2--12
Pepperdine goals: Anthony D'Ambra 3,
Kaden Kaneko 3,
Balazs Kosa 3,
Sean Ferrari 2,
Zach Arthur 1.
NOTABLE
- Three Waves – Christian Hosea, Travis Reynolds and Nico Tearney – are missing the opening weekend of play as they compete for the U.S. at the FINA Men's Junior World Championship in the Czech Republic.
- Kosa is now at 188 career goals, 13th all-time at Pepperdine.
UP NEXT
The Waves have two more games in La Jolla on Sunday (Sept. 5) as they take on Biola at 10:40 a.m. and Occidental at 1:20 p.m.
